Practice (73)

Ten people form a line, among which two are Chinese and two are Americans. Find the probability that both Chinese will stand in front of both Americans (not necessarily immediately in the front).

The nine delegates to the Economic Cooperation Conference include $2$ officials from Mexico, $3$ officials from Canada, and $4$ officials from the United States. During the opening session, three of the delegates fall asleep. Assuming that the three sleepers were determined randomly, find the probability that exactly two of the sleepers are from the same country.

Call a permutation $a_1, a_2, \ldots, a_n$ of the integers $1, 2, \ldots, n$ quasi-increasing if $a_k \leq a_{k+1} + 2$ for each $1 \leq k \leq n-1$. For example, $53421$ and $14253$ are quasi-increasing permutations of the integers $1$, $2$, $3$, $4$, $5$, but $45123$ is not. Find the number of quasi-increasing permutations of the integers $1$, $2$, $\ldots$, $7$.

There are $2^{10} = 1024$ possible $10$-letter strings in which each letter is either an $A$ or a $B$. Find the number of such strings that do not have more than $3$ adjacent letters that are identical.

Let $A={1,2,3,4}$, and $f$ and $g$ be randomly chosen (not necessarily distinct) functions from $A$ to $A$. Find the probability that the range of $f$ and the range of $g$ are disjoint.

185

Melinda has three empty boxes and $12$ textbooks, three of which are mathematics textbooks. One box will hold any three of her textbooks, one will hold any four of her textbooks, and one will hold any five of her textbooks. If Melinda packs her textbooks into these boxes in random order, find the probability that all three mathematics textbooks end up in the same box.

203

A $7\times 1$ board is completely covered by $m\times 1$ tiles without overlap; each tile may cover any number of consecutive squares, and each tile lies completely on the board. Each tile is either red, blue, or green. Let $N$ be the number of tilings of the $7\times 1$ board in which all three colors are used at least once. For example, a $1\times 1$ red tile followed by a $2\times 1$ green tile, a $1\times 1$ green tile, a $2\times 1$ blue tile, and a $1\times 1$ green tile is a valid tiling. Note that if the $2\times 1$ blue tile is replaced by two $1\times 1$ blue tiles, this results in a different tiling. Find $N$.

238

In a group of nine people each person shakes hands with exactly two of the other people from the group. Let $N$ be the number of ways this handshaking can occur. Consider two handshaking arrangements different if and only if at least two people who shake hands under one arrangement do not shake hands under the other arrangement. Find $N$.

251

Six men and some number of women stand in a line in random order. Let $p$ be the probability that a group of at least four men stand together in the line, given that every man stands next to at least one other man. Find the least number of women in the line such that $p$ does not exceed $1$ percent.

260

Define an ordered quadruple of integers $(a, b, c, d)$ as interesting if $1 \le a < b < c < d \le 10$, and $a+d>b+c$. How many interesting ordered quadruples are there?

266

Nine delegates, three each from three different countries, randomly select chairs at a round table that seats nine people. Find the probability that each delegate sits next to at least one delegate from another country.

282

Jackie and Phil have two fair coins and a third coin that comes up heads with probability $\frac47$. Jackie flips the three coins, and then Phil flips the three coins. Let $\frac {m}{n}$ be the probability that Jackie gets the same number of heads as Phil, where $m$ and $n$ are relatively prime positive integers. Find $m + n$.

314

There are $n$ points, $A_1$, $A_2$, $\cdots$, $A_n$ on a line segment, $\overline{A_0A_{n+1}}$. The point $A_0$ is black, $A_{n+1}$ is white, and the rest points are colored randomly either black or white. Prove: among these $n+1$ line segments $A_kA_{k+1}$, where $k=0, 1, \cdots, n$, the number of those with different colored ending points is odd.

374

For each positive integer $n$, let $S(n)$ be the number of sequences of length $n$ consisting solely of the letters $A$ and $B$, with no more than three $A$s in a row and no more than three $B$s in a row. What is the remainder when $S(2015)$ is divided by $12$?

473

In a small pond there are eleven lily pads in a row labeled $0$ through $10$. A frog is sitting on pad $1$. When the frog is on pad $N$, $0 < N < 10$, it will jump to pad $(N-1)$ with probability $\frac{N}{10}$ and to pad $(N+1)$ with probability $1-\frac{N}{10}$. Each jump is independent of the previous jumps. If the frog reaches pad $0$ it will be eaten by a patiently waiting snake. If the frog reaches pad $10$ it will exit the pond, never to return. What is the probability that the frog will escape without being eaten by the snake?

491

Rabbits Peter and Pauline have three offspring: Flopsie, Mopsie, and Cotton-tail. These five rabbits are to be distributed to four different pet stores so that no store gets both a parent and a child. It is not required that every store gets a rabbit. In how many different ways can this be done?

790

A parking lot has $16$ spaces in a row. Twelve cars arrive, each of which requires one parking space, and their drivers chose spaces at random from among the available spaces. Auntie Em then arrives in her SUV, which requires $2$ adjacent spaces. What is the probability that she is able to park?

1063

How many non-congruent triangles have vertices at three of the eight points in the array shown below?

1150

Everyday at school, Jo climbs a flight of $6$ stairs. Joe can take the stairs $1$, $2$, or $3$ at a time. For example, Jo could climb $3$, then $1$, then $2$. In how many ways can Jo climb the stairs?

1246

Eight people are sitting around a circular table, each holding a fair coin. All eight people flip their coins and those who flip heads stand while those who flip tails remain seated. What is the probability that no two adjacent people will stand?

1556

Two cubical dice each have removable numbers $1$ through $6$. The twelve numbers on the two dice are removed, put into a bag, then drawn one at a time and randomly reattached to the faces of the cubes, one number to each face. The dice are then rolled and the numbers on the two top faces are added. What is the probability that the sum is $7$?

1646

Two tour guides are leading six tourists. The guides decide to split up. Each tourist must choose one of the guides, but with the stipulation that each guide must take at least one tourist. How many different groupings of guides and tourists are possible?

1818

How many ways can all six numbers in the set $\{4, 3, 2, 12, 1, 6\}$ be ordered so that $a$ comes before $b$ whenever $a$ is a divisor of $b$?

1850

How many collections of six positive, odd integers have a sum of $18$? Note that $1 + 1 + 1 + 3 + 3 + 9$ and $9 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 3 + 1$ are considered to be the same collection.

1929

In how many ways can 6 different gifts be given to five different children with each child receiving at least one gift and each gift being given to exactly one child?

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